When It Is Okay to Shut Up

A couple of weeks ago, I read a piece from Dwight Jaynes, then of the Portland Tribune, on the importance of bloggers in covering sports. The jist of it is that the extra take an independent blogger provides helps better inform the masses. Something I wholeheartedly agree with. However, I took issue with Jaynes' take on sources and the notion of them manipulating the beat reporter. A good beat reporter gives and takes from his or her source. Look no further than Jaynes' former colleague, Jason Quick.

Quick spent 13 seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers during probably the most dramatic era of their history, an era when they would be known as the Jail Blazers. While Jaynes was writing columns with the Tribune, Quick was the beat reporter with The Oregonian. Quick's first season on the beat was the 2000-01. The season before, the Trail Blazers blew a 15-point lead in Game Seven of the Western Conference Finals to Shaq and Kobe's Los Angeles Lakers. You may remember that game for featuring this.

The next season, the Trail Blazers started out strongly bettering the Lakers for the Best Record in the West for much of the season until they ultimately collapsed from first to seventh in the West and then losing three straight to the Lakers in the first round. I leave the rest to Quick.

The relationship issues and the networking are the most pertinent issues to me. I can empathize with some of what Quick says. My first truly ethical issue came in the spring of 2012 when the IC Men's Lacrosse laid an egg on a Sunday noon game losing in overtime to lowly Oswego State. This had been a team picked to finish second in its conference and push for either an automatic spot or an at-large spot to the NCAA Tournament, Oswego were middle of the road at best.

After the game, I interviewed coach Jeff Long trying to figure out what the heck happened where he muttered "sometimes I wish the players were more coachable," I immediately followed up but got cut-off, the interview ended and he requested to me strike that quote from the record.

This was my second season as a beat writer and while I had been able to report on Hydrilla affecting the crew team, this was the possible beginning of something bigger. A longer feature on a possible discord between coach and team and its potential impact. I asked then Sports Editor, Kevin McCall for advice and he told me not to run it.

I still felt compelled to go further but in hindsight, I realize that this would ultimately not be the best move. I would have reported The Truth but it would not have been worth it.

Not because I feared getting people to aim their lacrosse shots at my head but because of networking. I can guarantee that that would be the last lacrosse story I could effectively write. Did I withhold the truth? Yes. However I do not feel any regrets.

Ultimately the lacrosse team would be disappointing and karma did not reward with any further potentially, provocative lacrosse stories. However, I have been able to report on several stories that I do not think I would have been able to do had I done this report as a freshman. And there are more stories I have where networking has worked wonders and I hope to have them soon.

In conclusion, yes bloggers can inform and their intrepidness is exciting but just because there is information and stories to be had at the surface doesn't mean that they should be out there. Ultimately the more significant stories are deeper than that and just generating content with a relatively mundane story like this may not do as much good as it would seem.

Even if it's true.

Hello

Welcome to The Designated Player. This is a blog created by me, Christian Araos, for Jeff Cohen's Indy Media Class at Ithaca College.

In the likely event I keep this site going after the course is done, I will use it for ramblings about stuff that usually would not make my regular postings on any of the other sites I write for. Think of it as a behind the scenes look at myself, sports and/or media and/or anything else.

To quote HOV: Allow Me to Introduce Myself.

I am 20 years old and a junior at Ithaca College with a major in journalism and minors in Honors and Sport Studies. I currently write for three entities: One Goal, Empire of Soccer and The Ithacan. I write columns for the first two and do beat reporting on the other. I'm on Twitter as well so follow me if you want @Christian_Araos.

I'm trying to enter a career in sports writing but in a capacity that uses my sport studies minor. In other words, I'm trying to bring a new perspective on sports or at least a different one than the usual. Not saying I'm into counter-narrative because there's no such thing, just making sure I bring a new dish to the table.

As for the name of the blog, the Designated Player is a term in MLS (Major League Soccer) that is used for players who are signed to contracts outside of the salary cap. These players are the most valuable to their team not just for their salaries but their potential impact on and off the field. They are the standouts when compared to their teammates but they are also held to a higher standard.

And therein lies the goal of this site. To provide a point of view that stands out from the rest while holding myself to a high ethical standard.